The present inventive subject matter relates generally to the art of automated camera systems. Particular but not exclusive relevance is found in connection with red light enforcement and/or other traffic cameras. Accordingly, the present specification makes specific reference thereto. It is to be appreciated however that aspects of the present inventive subject matter are also equally amenable to other like applications.
To capture high quality images, red light, traffic and/or other like automated camera systems commonly use one or more flashes or illumination devices to illuminate regions or objects of interest when ambient light is low, e.g., at night time or when there are cloudy or overcast conditions. Without sufficient illumination, objects of interest such as vehicles, drivers and/or license plates, may not be accurately visualized and/or identifiable in images captured by the camera system. For example, accurate visualization and/or identification of such objects in captured images are often important for law enforcement purposes and/or the issuing of traffic citation.
Over time, flashes, lamps and/or other illumination devices can degrade and ultimately stop functioning altogether. Such failure and/or degradation can result in insufficient illumination when the camera system is capturing an image in a low ambient lighting condition. In turn, one or more objects of interest in such a captured image may not be accurately visualized and/or identifiable. For example, a typical flash configuration may include three flash devices—one auxiliary flash to generally illuminate a vehicle, a second license plate flash to illuminate a vehicle's license plate and a third flash to illuminate a driver of the vehicle. Sufficient degradation and/or failure of any one of these flashes when the camera system is obtaining an image in low ambient lighting conditions may result in insufficient illumination of the target object in the captured image such that the target object is not well visualized and/or not readily identifiable in the captured image. Accordingly, enforcement or other actions reliant on accurate visualization and/or identification of one or more such objects in the captured image may be frustrated.
Traditionally, operators of automated camera systems such as those mentioned above relied on human labor-intensive practices to monitor, check and/or verify proper flash operation. For example, an operator may periodically or intermittently conduct a manual review of images obtained from a camera system and visually inspect them for flash failures. Such an operator may commonly be assigned a significant number of cameras to check on a fairly frequent basis. Accordingly, such a process can be repetitive and prone to human oversight and/or error. Furthermore, such manual visual inspection is not conducive to tracking gradual flash degradation over time as subtle changes in illumination may not be readily apparent upon casual visual inspection of the images. Additionally, a maintenance technician may be assigned to manually inspect and/or conduct live tests of the flash devices in the field at periodic or intermittent intervals. Again, this is a labor-intensive process prone to human oversight and/or error.
Accordingly, a new and/or improved method, system and/or apparatus for monitoring, detecting, reporting and/or forecasting flash degradation and/or failure in automated and/or other camera systems is disclosed which addresses the above-referenced problem(s) and/or others.